UPDATE: Love Twibel Case Slated for January Trial

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Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson last week denied a summary judgment motion by attorneys for Courtney Love, clearing the way for her to become the first celebrity to go through a twibel trial for her alleged defamatory statements against her former attorney, The Hollywood Reporter reported last week.

The 49-year-old Love, actress, chanteuse for Hole, widow of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, gossip column fodder and overall train wreck, was sued by attorney Rhonda Holmes, whose firm, Holmes & Gordon, represented Love in a 2008 fraud claim against Cobain's Estate, until Love terminated her (see "TUOL" post 5/27/11). The alleged defamatory tweet by Love: "I was f------ devestated [sic] when Rhonda J. Holmes esq. of San Diego was bought off @FairNewsSpears perhaps you can get a quote."

Judge Johnson rejected Love's attorneys' argument that the allegedly offensive statement constituted Internet rhetorical hyperbole/opinion and was incapable of a defamatory meaning. Likewise, Judge Johnson said defendant's claim that the statement did not identify the plaintiff law firm by name, an essential element of a defamation count, was an issue to be decided by a jury.

The plaintiff will have to satisfy the actual malice standard to sustain its twibel claim; in other words, that Love knew her accusation that the plaintiff firm was bribed was false or that she made the alleged claim with reckless disregard of its truth or falsity.

According to newspaper accounts, Love allegedly agreed to settle the suit for $600,000 and publish a retraction, but did not follow through. The case is set for trial January 13, 2014, barring a settlement.

R.I. Federal Judge Allows Journos to Live-Tweet Sentencing Hearing; Court System Remains Intact

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United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island Chief Judge William E. Smith this week allowed journalists for the first time to use cellphones and other electronic devices to live-Tweet the sentencing of a criminal case, the Providence Journal reported today.

Judge Smith permitted social media coverage of the sentencing of Joseph A. Caramadre, a  politically connected philanthropist who received a six-year jail term and was ordered to pay millions in restitution for orchestrating an investment scheme that victimized terminally ill individuals.

The high-profile sentencing hearing became a one-time exception to the court's antiquated local rules that proscribe the use of such devices in court.

Judge Denies Access to Jurors' Twitter Accounts in Arias Sentencing Phase

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Maricopa County (Ariz.) Superior Court Judge Sherry K. Stephens this week denied a request by attorneys for convicted killer Jody Arias to compel jurors to divulge their Twitter account information, Phoenix-based ABC15.com reported.

Arias was convicted last May for the 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, but the jury was unable to agree on sentencing, prompting a retrial on the sentencing phase in the case in which the state is seeking the death penalty.

Defense counsel asked Judge Stephens for the jurors' Twitter account information so that their tweets could be monitored to ensure no discussion of the case outside of the courtroom. The prosecution opposed the move as invasive of the jurors' right to privacy.

Judge Stephens ruled there was no basis to order the data revealed absent a credible allegation of juror misconduct.

UPDATE: Freelance Photog Wins $1.2m in Copyright Infringement Case

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A federal jury last Friday in the case of Agence France Presse et al. v. Morel (Case No. 10-cv-02730) awarded Haitian-born freelance photographer Daniel Morel $1.2 million damages in his copyright infringement suit against Agence France Presse and Getty Images, Mashable.com reported.

Morel had alleged that the defendants used without permission photos he had taken and posted on Twitter depicting devastation to his homeland after a 2010 earthquake. U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan last January granted, in part, a summary judgment motion in Morel's favor on his claim that Twitter's terms of service did not grant a license to the defendants to reproduce his images without his permission (see "TUOL" post 1/16/13).

Getty Images had distributed Morel's photos to numerous subscribers, including The Washington Post.

UPDATE: Second Re-Tweeter Pays Up in Lord McAlpine's U.K. Libel Case

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British comic Alan Davies is the latest social mediaite to learn the cost of the dark side of retweeting; in this case, 15,000 pounds ($23,976), according to accounts in The Guardian and the iMediaEthics.org media watchdog Web site.

Davies's resolution with Lord McAlpine follows the settlement last month with retweeter Sally Bercow, the spouse of the U.K. House of Commons Speaker. As reported here (see "TUOL" post 11/26/12), the retired British pol Alistair McAlpine, 71, one-time Conservative Party treasurer and confidant of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, settled a libel suit for roughly a combined $500,000 with the BBC and ITV last November.

Steve Messham, who alleged he was molested as a child, purportedly identified his alleged abuser in a photo whom police incorrectly said was McAlpine. Messham later apologized for the misidentification, but the BBC Newsnight program reported an unnamed North Wales politician was accused of pedophilia and the Twittersphere soon was active with posts suggesting that McAlpine was the abuser.

Davies, whom The Guardian reported has more than 400,000 Twitter followers, last year queried who the "Tory paedophile" was and retweeted a response identifying McAlpine. He was sued for libel by McAlpine despite promptly apologizing on Twitter for his posts. Bercow's 56,000 Tweeter followers allegedly received a post from her asking: "Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*." McAlpine reportedly donated the settlement from Davies to the Royal Chelsea Hospital, according to The Guardian article.

The U.K. does not have the protection that likely would be accorded retweeters in the U.S. by Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which states: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information contact provider."

Fox News Snafu Blames Obama in Fake Muslim Museum Story

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Over at Fox News, where anchors and talk show hosts go from zero to full lather in 30 seconds as part of their daily outrage exercise routine, newsie Anna Kooiman was forced to tweet an apology for reporting a false story Sunday about Fox fave President Barack Obama.

With the nation in the throes of a government shutdown, Kooiman reported about President Obama's alleged offer to pay out of his own pocket to keep a Jackson, Miss. museum of Muslim culture open. That "fact" was included in a news item about the Republican National Committee offering to step up to pay to keep the World War II Memorial open so that veterans and others may visit the site that had been closed because of the government shutdown caused by, well...that's not the point.  Kooiman's story, according to accounts by the Media Matters, Gawker and mediabistro.com TV Newser Web sites, follows:

"The Republican National Committee is offering to pay for it to keep it open so that the veterans from Honor Flight are going to be able to go to see this because who did it honor? It really doesn't seem fair, especially--and we're going to talk a little bit later in the show too about some things that are continuing to be funded. And President Obama has offered to pay out of his own pocket for the museum of Muslim culture out of his own pocket, yet it's the Republican National Committee who's paying for this."

Setting aside for a moment that this spoken passage should be taken out and shot and was purportedly uttered by a professionally trained journalist and not someone whose medications have yet to be adjusted, or that it seems to suggest that President Obama ought to consider personally funding the continued operation of the WWII Memorial, the more immediate problems with the story are:

1. President Obama made no such offer;
2. There is no International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson, Miss.;
3. If such a museum existed, it wouldn't be government-run; 
4. The source of the news item was a satirical Web site, The National Report.

Kooiman issued the following contrite tweet: "Just met w producers--I made a mistake yday after receiving flawed research abt a museum possibly closing. My apologies. Won't happen again."

Not a terribly detailed mea culpa, and makes the error-free staff of "TUOL" wonder if Kooiman was using shortcuts to stay within Twitter's140-character limit or believes yday and abt are actual words. What "TUOL" doesn't doubt is that such a gaffe will happen again because many of the Fox staffers, and certainly disciples of Fox News, want such a news story to be true to the point of willing it true, if it isn't. No red flags were raised by the item, because many Fox viewers believe the President is a practicing Muslim anyway.

"We report, you decide," is the motto of Fox News.  Thanks, don't mind if we do.

Tweet Cleaning

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Responding to an online petition supporting British activist Caroline Criado-Perez, the target of abusive posts that included rape threats, microblogger colossus Twitter this week said it will add a software-friendly button that will enable users to report offensive posts, the New York Times reported.

In the last month, Twitter already added such a button to its iPhone and iPad versions, and will expand the report abuse function to its Android and desktop Web versions, according to the Times article..  Del Harvey, the company's senior director for trust and safety, cedes that the company can't monitor the more than 400 million tweets posted daily, and notes that Twitter already has in place a complaint-reporting system, albeit one that involves completing a form.

Besides the button, Twitter also recommends that users unfollow offensive accounts, block abusive tweeters and report threatening messages to police.

Thomson Reuters Twitter Feed Hacked by Pro-Assad Group

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Hacking is the great equalizer for "armies" that might not fare so well on the battlefield, as financial data and news giant Thomson Reuters learned yesterday.

The Web site Allthingsd.com reported that the Syrian Electronic Army ("SEA"), which backs President Bashar al-Assad in the Middle East nation's bloody, nearly two-and-a-half-year-old civil war, briefly co-opted @ThomsonReuters to spew seven tweet links to images that included pro-Assad cartoons that BuzzFeed captured.

The Thomson Reuters account was temporarily suspended until the company regained control of it. The SEA last April and May took credit for hacking into Twitter accounts of CBS, The Guardian and Financial Times, according to the Allthingsd article.

Turns out you can't believe everything you read in social media world, a shocking revelation to no one.

Talkin' Turkey: PM Threatens Times of London with Legal Action

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A month after branding Twitter  a "provocateur" (see "TUOL" post 6/26/13), Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has the Times of London in his sites, threatening the daily with legal action over a full-page political ad criticizing him for his "dictatorial rule," Al-Jazeera reported today.

Hollywood's Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn are among the signatories in the ad that objects to the PM's handling of anti-government demonstrations and blames Erdogan for the deaths of five protesters. Demonstrators, whom the PM has condemned as "terrorists" and "looters," are demanding his ouster.

"We will pursue legal channels regarding the Times," Erdogan is quoted as saying in the Al-Jazeera. It's puzzling to "TUOL" what Erdogan believes is being 'broadcast' on such legal channels that would give rise to an actionable claim against the daily for running a paid advertisement.

Are Turkish Leaders Anti-Social?

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Free speech advocates and social media proponents are on edge concerning comments by Turkish leaders hinting at new measures that would restrict use of Twitter and other social media platforms, according to a recent article by World Bulletin.net.

Two weeks ago, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned microblogger Twitter as a provocateur spreading misinformation, suggesting the platform and "market speculators" were culprits behind recent riots in the country. Meanwhile, Ali Sahin, Deputy Chair of the AK Party, was quoted as saying: "A false tweet is more dangerous than a bomb. Social Media regulation is a must."

Though other government officials have said the country is only considering legislation to bolster security against cyberterrorism, academics and analysts are among those pushing back against stricter social media regulation, according to the World Bulletin article.

Savas Bozbel, law school dean at International Antalya University, argued that Turkey's Criminal Code already can handle social media defamation, and warns that any ham-fisted government attempts to regulate microbloggers will backfire and increase citizens' social media usage.

Twitter Aiming High in Content Partnerships

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San Francisco-based social networker Twitter has blossomed from microblogging to serving as a multimedia platform, forging relationships with Weather Channel, LLC, ESPN and Turner Broadcasting Network, sharing ad revenues as it streams video content from those networks.

Now comes word from TechCrunch that Twitter has Viacom and Comcast's NBCUniversal in its sites, and may soon be a vehicle for sharing video clips from one or both of those media giants in return for a piece of the ad revenue action. TechCrunch reports that Twitter may have an agreement in place with one or both of Viacom and Comcast as early as next month.

Twitter continues to expand opportunities for its 140-character devotees to share content.

All Atwitter Over Social Platform's Meteoric Growth

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Buoyed in the U.S. by increased use by the over-55 set and a stronger mobile Internet presence, social media platform Twitter is now being used monthly by 21 percent of the world's Internet population, according to GlobalWebIndex ("GWI") cited in an online Forbes article.

Fourth Quarter 2012 figures revealed a staggering 40 percent increase among active Twitter users, which translates to 288 million tweeters. The GWI measures usage in 31 markets that comprise roughly 90 percent of the global Internet population between ages 16 and 65, the Forbes piece noted. Dating back to July 2009, active tweeters have increased by 714 percent.

Active usage of Twitter grew 94 percent in the U.S., second only to Hong Kong. The over-55 demographic is the fastest-growing group among tweeters, the GWI survey noted, and Americans last year increased their mobile Internet usage of Twitter to 43 percent from 37 percent the previous year.

Bet there are some folks in the respective boardrooms of Google and Facebook who wish their companies had acquired the San Francisco-based microblogger before it learned how to spin gold in 140-character segments.

Social Media Gains as Political Content Source

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Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, are just as trusted--and mistrusted-- by voters as traditional media outlets when it comes to providing political information, according to a study reported by the Politico Web site.

The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management/ORI online survey of 806 Internet users, which has a plus or minus 3.45 percent margin of error, concluded that voters found political information on social media of higher quality, or at least as good as, political data provided via traditional media, such as television and newspapers. Age was a factor among respondents, as 36 percent of older voters polled were skeptical of social media political content, while among voters age 26 and under, 71 percent believed social media platforms outshone traditional media regarding trustworthiness.

Seventy-seven percent of survey participants said they made political contributions via Email or through campaign Web sites, while 19 percent did so via Facebook. The 2012 election was first in which the Federal Election Commission permitted texted contributions, and 18 percent of respondents availed themselves of the text message option to contribute to their chosen candidates, according to the Politico post.

Federal Judge Backs Photog in Social Media Copyright Claim

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United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Alison Nathan this week in Agence France Presse v. Morel (Case No. 10-cv-02730) granted, in part, a summary judgment motion brought by a photographer who claims news organizations infringed on copyrighted images he posted on Twitter.

According to a report by the wire service Reuters, photographer Daniel Morel tweeted photos he took of the destruction caused by an earthquake in Haiti in January 2010. Defendant Agence France Presse (AFP) transmitted Morel's photos to defendant Getty Images, four of which were published on the Web site of defendant Washington Post , which subscribes to Getty, according to the court ruling.

AFP contended the photos in question were available for re-use once they were posted on Twitter, but Judge Nathan found AFP and the Washington Post infringed on Morel's copyright because the social media platform's terms of service did not grant a license to the defendants to reproduce the images without Morel's permission. The court imposed a ceiling on the amount of damages Morel could recover, did not rule on the infringement claim as to Getty Images, and left unresolved other issues for trial, a date for which has not yet been set.

The Reuters article reported that Morel countersued the defendants after AFP initially filed suit against Morel in March 2010, seeking a determination that it had not infringed on Morel's copyright. Twitter, which is not a party to the suit, takes the view that users of the service own their photographs that are posted on Twitter.

All the World's a-Twitter

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 Twitter has surpassed 200 million users monthly, the San Francisco-based microblogger announced this week, via a tweet, naturally.

"There are now more than 200m monthly active @twitter users. You are the pulse of the planet. We're grateful for your ongoing support!", the company tweeted, within the 140-character limit, yet. As reported by Cnet.com, Twitter users produce one billion tweets every two days.

Never have so many done so much that means so little. Later this year, according to the Cnet post, Twitter is joining forces with tv ratings giant Nielsen to develop a tweet-based measure.

Twitter's vice-president of media described his company as "the world's digital water cooler."

Maybe because Twitter is refreshing but has no nutritional value.

Order a Medley of Your Greatest Tweets of Yore

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Pining away for another look at your favorite 140-character missives from years gone by? San Francisco-based microblogger monolith Twitter has just the cure for you.

According to Law.com's LegalBlogWatch, if you can't already, you'll soon be able to access Your Twitter Archive in the Settings section of your Twitter account. Click on the button and soon a zip file of all your tweets in html. format will be headed your way via Email from your favorite Santa @ Twitter. A similar zip file has been available to Twitter users in the European Union for some time, but has only recently been introduced in the States.

The motivation for poring over your brief bon mots is less nostalgic than it is litigious, according to the Law.com post, as the 140-character messages could be a treasure trove uncovered during the discovery phase of litigation. Presently, tracking down old tweets on the Twitter Web site is a cumbersome process.

So, this holiday season, tell the social media geek in your life about Your Twitter Archive and give him the chance to scroll down the tweets where he's lived.

Libel Blowback Against U.K. Retweeters & Commenters

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The New York Times yesterday reported that a retired British politician, who already has collected defamation judgments from the BBC and ITV for accounts wrongly linking him to child sexual abuse, has turned his attention in the plaintiff libel-friendly U.K. toward re-tweeters and others who commented about him on the social media site.

Seventy-year-old Alistair McAlpine, a former Conservative Party treasurer and confidante of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, recovered 185,000 pounds ($296,275) from the BBC after the broadcaster's Newsnight program wrongly linked him, though not directly by name, to alleged child abuse in North Wales. Twitter users were able to identify him based on the BBC story, which the broadcaster conceded was a case of mistaken identity by the accuser. The ITV television network settled McAlpine's libel suit against them for 125,000 pounds ($200,182), according to the Times article.

McAlpine, an author and one-time deputy chair of the Conservative Party (1979-83), is pursuing libel claims against 20 prominent individuals who tweeted about the false child abuse accusations, among them, a comic, a newspaper columnist and the spouse of a prominent politician, the Times reported. Additionally, McAlpine's attorneys have created a Web site that includes a form to complete for lower-profile Tweeters who purportedly defamed him. These tweeters, who have fewer than 500 followers, would be required to apologize, make a charitable donation and be subject to a small administrative fee for their alleged transgressions, which could amount to little more than innuendo or indirect reference to the child abuse allegations.

In the U.S., the tweeters likely would be protected from liability by 47 U.S.C. sec. 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act, which provides: "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." Additionally, many states recognize the "wire service rule" as a defense against libel. Under that rule, espoused in cases such as Appleby v. Daily Hampshire Gazette, 395 Mass. 32 (1985), one may avoid liability if one republished a news item from a reputable wire service, such as Associated Press or Reuters, without knowing the item was false or having any reason to doubt the truth of the item on its face, provided the republication does not substantially alter the news item.

6th Circ.: Ok YouTube Death Threat Song Lands Singer in 'Sing-Sing'

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In U.S. v. Franklin D. Jeffries II (Case No. 11-5722), the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has upheld the criminal conviction of an Iraq/Afghanistan war veteran whose YouTube music video threatened the life of an unidentified judge set to hear a child custody visitation dispute in which Jeffries was embroiled were the unnamed judge to issue an adverse ruling.

In a 20-page decision written by Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, the appellate court said the vehicle for delivering a death threat was unimportant if a reasonable person perceived the threat as genuine. According to accounts in the Knoxville News Sentinel and the ABA Journal Law News Now blog, Franklin Delano "Dale" Jeffries, a former Army sergeant, sang and rapped a warning that his next court date in a visitation battle with his daughter's mother had better be his last.

"If I have to kill a judge or a lawyer, or a woman, I don't care, cause this is my daughter we're talking about," Jeffries sang. His lyrics also included the phrase: "You don't deserve to be a judge and you don't deserve to live." As a songwriter, the defendant was less Cole Porter than Cole Younger, or more Frankenstein than Jule Styne.

Knox County Chancellor Mike Moyers was slated to hear the custody case in July 2010, the News Sentinel reported, but federal authorities intervened after Jeffries posted his ditty on YouTube and Facebook, and also forwarded it to a state senator and a local television station.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Jeffries was released earlier this year, but has since been sentenced to a year in prison by United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee Judge Thomas W. Phillips for cocaine use and issuing threats of suicide and murder on Twitter, so he's apparently turned his creative juices toward a new medium, at least.

Jeffries' attorneys claimed their client's song was a failed attempt at humor, and in any case, constituted a means of releasing stress that was protected by the First Amendment. No dice, said the Sixth Circuit. "[O]ne cannot duck (the law)," Judge Sutton wrote, "merely by delivering the threat in verse or by dressing it up with political and protected attacks on the legal system."

For the immediate future, it looks as if Jeffries' repertoire of songs may be confined to Prisoner of Love, Jailhouse Rock and the country & western classic: They May Put Me in Prison, but They Can't Stop My Face from Breakin' Out.

Twitter Fights Subpoena in Occupy Wall Street Case

Getty Images via @daylifeNew York County Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino  recently declined the defendant's motion to quash a subpoena in People v. Malcolm Harris (Case No. 2011NY080152) for lack of standing, but Agence France Presse news service reports that, backed by the ACLU, microblogger Twitter will challenge the court order to hand over user data to authorities.

Harris faced a disorderly conduct [P.L. sec. 240.20[5]] charge for his alleged involvement in an Occupy Wall Street demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge last year. Law enforcement officials issued a subpoena to Twitter seeking email information and tweets for the period from 9/15/11 to 12/31/11 for account @destructuremal, a Twitter account allegedly used by Harris.

In his decision against Harris, Judge Sciarrino said Twitter does not guarantee its users complete privacy. According to a press release by the ACLU, however, Twitter is contesting the subpoena, claiming its Terms of Service indicate that users "own" their content. The social media giant contends that compliance with the court's order would run afoul of the federal Stored Communications Act [18 U.S.C. sec. 2701-2711], a part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Twitter Tags Spammers With Federal Court Suit

Image via CrunchBaseSan Francisco-based monster microblogger Twitter last Thursday sued five Websites it claims are using software to bombard tweeter with advertising and virus-plagued links.

Twitter named TweetBuddy, TweetAdder, TweetAttacks, justinlover.info's James Lucero and tropion.com's Garland E. Harris as defendants who allegedly devise tools to carpet-bomb Twitter account holders with spam, according to a Reuters article.